Childhood Fantasy Comes True For Kissimmee Doctor

KISSIMMEE — The likelihood of Michael Link shelving his stethoscope for a chaw of tobacco and a catcher's mitt is pure folly. Still, for a week last summer in Reno, Nev., he had a chance to pretend.

More than two decades after attaining all-star status as a catcher in the Newport News (Va.) Little League, Link snapped up the opportunity to take part in a seven-day Washoe Medical Center seminar on sports medicine. There, he rubbed elbows with former major-league players Maury Wills, Tommy Davis, Lou Johnson, Tito Fuentes, Jim Ray Hart, John Roseboro, Ed Halicki, Ken McMullen and Nate Oliver.

Link, 34, an avid New York Yankees fan, said his only disappointment was learning that Mickey Mantle and Juan Marichal canceled out at the last minute. Photos of the week-long camp, practically a childhood fantasy, adorn a hall wall of the Family Practice Center office complex on Oak Street.

''I've even got my own baseball card,'' Link said, offering to autograph a 3-by-5 card that shows him in a Yankees uniform fielding a grounder on one knee.

Mantle's No. 7 graces the back of Link's jersey.

A young power hitter whose eight home runs in 1962 were a Little League high-water mark, Link pursued the opportunity with the enthusiasm and reverence of a star-struck youngster. ''I loved every minute of it.

''It was a good excuse for a bunch of doctors to get out of their element, let their professional hair down and be a kid again. Nobody laughed at us if we'd ask the big leaguers for an autograph or to pose for a picture.''

Daily seminars and lectures began at 7 a.m. on baseball's arm and knee injuries, as well as other baseball-related problems.

The workshops ended in time for the doctors to suit up in their major- league replica uniforms and report to Moana Municipal Stadium at 9:30 a.m., home of the Class AA Reno Padres.

After meetings and more discussion of baseball-type injuries, the doctors were divided into teams and went through 90-minute workouts on fielding, throwing and hitting. After lunch the Boys of Medicine spent another hour working out as they tuned up for the seminar's closing ceremony -- an intrasquad game against the camp's professional instructors.

The camp's playing facilities didn't rate the same positive reviews Link gave the program. ''Their stadium facilities were atrocious,'' he said, ''a far cry from the plush surroundings that the Osceola Astros have.''

Link, who played a little softball while stationed in Pensacola as a U.S. Navy doctor, found himself stationed at third base for most of the sessions.

But, once a catcher, always a catcher. He was given an opportunity to go behind the plate for one inning, and it was there he collected one of his fondest memories.

''Tito was batting and had fouled off a couple of pitches. Then, he foul tipped another and I caught it.

''He heard that slap-slap of the ball hitting the bat then the glove and turned around with this stunned look on his face to see if I'd caught it. When he saw that I had I thought he was going to hit me.

But fun was work, too. ''I was Mr. Party in Reno,'' Link said, bashfully admitting to ''being asleep every night by 7,'' after the daily three-hour workout, hot-tub stop and an early dinner.

When game day rolled around, Link was a bundle of nerves, batting against Halicki, a former San Francisco Giants pitcher.

''It was more like slow-pitch baseball, but I hit into a double play.

''Still, there aren't many doctors who can say they grounded into a Maury Wills-to-Nate Oliver-to Ken McMullen double play.'' Link says he'll go back next summer, and that he'll use all that he learned about sports medicine as team doctor for high school athletics. ''I think the seminar and on-field experience will help me think more about the game as a doctor and a player.''